Consequence of Delay
by Jarek Gray
Summary: The "Monster Makers" were a tad slower to create the entities that would be known as Digimon, making the world that would evolve and change to sometimes break into the real world break in that much later. The Digimon Tamers as teenagers, fitting more with the darker story elements that were introduced in that season.


**Disclaimer: I'm not actually sure who owns Digimon, but it isn't me.**

 **AN: This story was a challenge from Kairomaru, so check out his profile. I'll summarize the base changes from Canon here:**

 **-The Monster Makers work was held back by three years, while the Tamers were still born around the same time.**

 **-This leaves the Tamers 15, three years older than the English version of the anime.**

 **-As 15 year olds, certain things will be different, such as the levels of maturity and the way they choose to express themselves. (Basically, cursing and flirting are a thing now.)**

 **-I have chosen to follow all suggestions from the challenge, making this a darker story than canon.**

 **-Not really a change, but I'll be using the English Version's names.**

White lines formed a grid over a green backdrop, a yellow crosshair on the grid approaching a smaller red one. Two women sat in raised chairs, their eyes hidden behind visors that presumably held the grid in more detail on their surface. "Sir, this one's nearly at the site for bio-emergence. Should I fire the tracer?" An old fashioned lighter flicked shut, the sound far louder than it should have been.

"No, not quite yet. Let it get closer." The man with the lighter wore a suit impossible to distinguish from any other similar outfit without a thorough inspection. Even in the dim lighting of the room, he wore sunglasses. In spite of the fact his eyes couldn't be seen from behind the shades, it was clear that he was staring intensely at the yellow target on the grid.

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Running through an area that resembled nothing more than an infinite reflective scape built from a computer's motherboard, a small white creature with purple trim around its ears was being chased by a daunting, high-tech armored unicorn. It whimpered in fright, now and then begging for the threatening monster to let it go. Failing that, it would ask if they could just play a game instead.

"DATA!" Was the only response the desperate little creature would get. It was thrown off its feet, as a black saurian creature with several spines along its back smashed into the equestrian one that had been chasing it. Taking advantage of the surprise attack, the dark creature lifted the other, its body shifting to be covered in metallic armor as it crushed the body of its foe with an echoing roar.

A flash of light blinded the tiny creature that had just been saved, though seemingly by accident. The next thing it saw was a busy street, its ears growing large as it hovered in the air above a city. A helicopter passed over it, throwing it for a loop as it gazed at the surrounding world in wonder.

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"And with this modify card, I turn Dark Tyrannomon into Metal Tyrannomon, overpowering and crushing your Unimon!" The two teens held each other's gaze seriously for a few seconds, before the loser gave a dramatic shout at his loss. The other two teens, the victor and one that had just been watching, laughed at the over the top display. They both knew that it didn't really bother their friend, or at least not as much as he made it look like it did.

All three teens wore matching outfits, blue blazers and trousers with white ties and undershirts. It was the uniform for a nearby high-school, all three students were first years there. They were Takato Matsuki, Kazu Shioda, and Kenta Kitagawa. All of them were longtime friends, and ever since Digimon had come out, they had been active fans. Their friendship was easygoing, their personalities not really leaving much room for conflict.

Kazu was the class clown, he overplayed his emotions to grab laughs from his friends, and took very little seriously, unless that something was Digimon. Kenta was the quiet member of the group, as well as being the kindest member. Takato was a dreamer, and an artist. Even though he was often considered airheaded by his peers, he could be practical when the time called for it. After Kenta, who was the smallest of the group as well as the quietest, was bullied in Middle School, he learned Judo and helped defend him.

"I never should've taught you how to play, Takato! Seriously, why you gotta steal my favorite victory strategies like that?" The winner, Takato, just laughed. He didn't beat Kazu often, and the half-hearted accusation wasn't enough to lower his mood. "Whatever man, hurry up and pack your cards. We really don't need to be late again." Takato barely heard his friend, looking from the table they were using to some of the equipment in the park.

Nostalgia ran through his mind, memories of hiding inside the equipment while Kazu taught him how to play surfacing. A light punch on his arm woke him from his stupor, his two friends had both finished packing up and had started leaving as soon as he turned around. Hurrying to pack his own cards, he was surprised to notice a card that was almost entirely blue, save for an orange dinosaur head in profile. ' _Huh, I don't remember a card like this. What does it even do?_ '

As he made to slide the card through his reader, the sound of a bell in the distance drew his attention. "Shit! Hey, Kazu, Kenta, wait up!" Deciding to ignore the mysterious card until he got home, he stuffed his deck into his backpack and ran to catch up with his friends, hoping that he would make it on time.

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Takato sighed as he put his head on his desk, irritated at himself for spacing-out during the morning. He was lucky that his first period was his art class, seeing as any of his other teachers would have given him detention. He looked at the completed abstract in front of him, wishing he'd spent more time just to escape the boredom of having nothing to do. With yet another sigh, he pulled his mini-sketch pad and an array of color pencils from his backpack, hoping to get back to work on his latest great idea.

Takato had been a huge fan of Digimon ever since they had come out, and had been more than pleased to learn the rules to the card game and watch the anime. When he had started, quite a few of his classmates had also been into the fad, but the only ones that still were had been playing with him that morning. Still, he would maintain that enjoying the game wasn't childish, no matter how many of his peers disagreed.

From his deep, continuing appreciation for the game, he had come up with the idea to create his own Digimon. What any of his peers would take to be mere doodles if they watched his pencil, was actually him finally finishing the design of his creation: Guilmon. Rather than the Vaccine or Data type Digimon most common to the protagonists of the show, he had decided to create an exceedingly powerful Virus type Digimon. A smirk developed as his design fell into place.

Guilmon was a red saurian digimon, with a white torso and black accents around his body. The center of his chest was filled with a black Hazard symbol, betraying his Virus type background. His ears were shaped like dragon wings, and he had powerful muscles and large claws. By the time Takato finished the actual picture, it was clear that this was a predator, one that had power and speed in abundance.

He had already created the basic stats and powers he'd wanted the creature to hold, high-powered offense, flame attacks, high foot-speed, and as tough of a hide as a Rookie level Digimon could have. He brushed his hair back from his face as he finished his creation, irritated at how long it had gotten. His brown hair had long been on the shaggy side, but he had recently begun neglecting to get it cut, resulting in the now shoulder-length mess he had to put up with.

After the last three minutes the class had left, he gave his teacher the random burst of color that he'd done for his official project in class, and packed his real work away to show his friends later. While Kazu would probably laugh about how he'd wasted time creating something he would never have the guts to send to the company in charge of Digimon, Kenta would probably congratulate him for the artwork. He sighed as his next class started, wishing that he had more than the two friends he did.

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After the mind-numbing doldrum of school, and the minor highlight that playing against his friends again had brought, Takato was nearly back home. Honestly, he felt that he could find his home even if was blindfolded, simply by the smell of fresh baked bread that wafted from the combined bakery and domicile.

After making it to his room with the bare minimum acknowledgement, he took his deck and card reader out of his backpack. Ever since he'd finished his new Digimon, his mind had been fixated on the blue card he'd found earlier that morning. He scanned it as soon as he had both items, though his curiosity turned to shock as the card overloaded and broke his card reader, giving him a nasty shock in the process.

When he got the feeling in his hand back, he was amazed to see that his cardreader had changed into a D-arc, the newest type of Digivice according to the show and video games. Having one marked the recipient as a Digimon Tamer, a person who took a Digimon Partner and destroyed wild/evil Digimon. Afterwards, they would load the data of their fallen foes to increase in strength, sometimes even learning how to use the abilities of their demolished rivals.

It was easily the darkest start to a season he had ever witnessed, seeing the new goggle-clad protagonist send his beast to destroy and absorb an enemy in the first episode. He often wondered if it was an attempt to regain the original fans, or at least relate to them more. Takato shook his head, even when the literally impossible happened in front of him his thoughts wandered.

Returning his gaze to the new D-arc in his hand, he had a stupid idea. Sure, this thing was pretty much a card reader, and thus his idea wouldn't work, but he was pretty sure that instant metamorphosis of nonliving objects was impossible too. He pulled his notepad out, and carefully removed the pages with information on Guilmon from it. He began to slide them through the augment slot on the D-arc, but they got stuck partway through. He sighed as he set it down, laying on his bed with his arm over his eyes. A few minutes later, he went down the stairs to get dinner.

Through some twist of fate, or perhaps mere dramatic irony, the D-arc began glowing and shooting sparks as the pages cleanly slid through the device.

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"Sir, it seems that another emergence is about to take place, should we work to stop it now?" Once more, the grid displayed an area with a red target, though this time, there was only the one. It seemed as though this tear didn't have any Digimon attempting to breach into their world. A second red target appeared, with a yellow one flitting through it and disappearing within a handful of seconds.

"No, it seems that something has already made it. I doubt that anything will come from the other one, let it close on its own." This job was rather stressful, since what efforts they put forth were never going to keep up with the random incursions that the sentient digital world made on their own. The lighter flicked open and closed again, the action bringing the man in charge some small comfort.

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Takato stood in his room blinking rapidly, his note pages scattered on the ground and his D-arc flashing dimly. He reached for the small red device with shaking hands, his eyes widening as he saw the small display held a picture of an egg. Seems his recent bout of insanity was going to be lasting quite some time. He kept it locked in his grip as he laid back down, covering his eyes against the dull light the device gave off.

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Takato opened his eyes free of the obscuring arm, only to be nearly blinded by thick white mist. That was only the first thing to confuse him, as he clearly remembered laying down on his bed, and yet he was standing. He would have just written it off as a terrifying dream, especially considering the fact he was standing on AIR, but what he managed to see through the mist made him think it was simply another part of whatever was going on with him recently.

A girl his approximate age was standing on the street, though with the mist it was hard to distinguish her actual features. The only thing he could see without difficulty was her auburn hair. Now as a teen, this would hardly be the first time he saw a girl in a dream, but across from her was a digimon, a flaming orange and blue sabercat. Then, her voice carried to him through the mist, as he noticed a yellow fox-like digimon behind the girl.

"Lynxmon… hmph. Renamon, make it quick." The yellow biped was tackled immediately after those instructions, the far larger beast having ignored the girl to fight the obvious threat between the two. The auburn-haired girl sighed, her hand reaching into the pocket of the large coat she was wearing to pull out several modify cards. "Renamon, Digi-modify. Hyper-speed!" Renamon smirked, seeming to flicker in place under the larger creature before disappearing.

Takato felt breathless as Renamon leapt into the air behind the unaware monster, _feeling_ its gaze on him for a brief second. Renamon looked back at her most recent prey, jagged crystalline shards forming in the air around her. " **Diamond Storm!** " The voice of the fox seemed to lightly echo as it demolished its foe, immediately absorbing the data left over.

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Takato immediately sat up, briefly confused to his location once more. That… hadn't been any kind of dream that he'd had before. If anything, it was more like a vision, but that would be even more insane than the matter transfiguration and magic anime device he'd witnessed so far. As he thought a little harder, that really didn't seem too farfetched.

He brought the D-arc to his face as it crossed his thoughts, yet more shock going through him as he realized that the display now showed a hatched egg, along with a red arrow that kept pointing away from his location. Now, most teens would probably ignore a flashing arrow on some toy, but after everything he'd seen so far, he figured he should see if his first thought from seeing the empty egg shell was correct.

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After the rush to throw on a coat and follow the arrow, Takato was beginning to regret his impulsive response. After an hour of squeezing through allies and kicking rats out of his way as he headed to what he vaguely recalled to be an area where construction equipment was stored. He was dirty and his clothes had several tears on them. Not much of a problem, but it was irritating to try and find such an obscure area.

When he finally reached the area his D-arc was guiding him to, he saw some sparks traveling across the ground, and the white mist from his dream filled the area. Just like it had in his vision, it was brilliantly white and caused his eyes to strain. ' _If this becomes a regular thing, I'll need sunglasses._ ' From the center of the area, white and red light flashed, forcing him to cover his eyes.

When he could see again, the mist had completely receded. Standing from where the flash had taken place, was the red viral saurian he had finished this morning. "G-Guilmon, holy shit." The words barely came out as a whisper, what had been a dream twelve hours ago was now in the flesh before him. Guilmon looked around, literally seeing the world for the first time. A scittering rat was unfortunate to draw his attention, and quickly paid the price.

" **Pyro Sphere!** " Takato watched in horror as his creation blew apart not only the rat, but also smashed a hole in the wall behind it. Guilmon sniffed the air, before turning his head to face his terrified creator, giving a bestial attempt at a grin as he saw a living thing around his size.

"Guilmon! Don't attack! I'm your creator, my name is Takato." At first, Takato was afraid that his creation didn't understand and would treat him just as he had the rat, but soon Guilmon tilted his head on a diagonal and stared at him. "Right, I made you, so we should be friends. Can you speak yet?" He didn't expect what came next.

"Takatomon!" The human-sized red dinosaur leapt at him with a hug, laughing as Takato jumped and squirmed in discomfort. "You will be Tamer, Takatomon, and I will explode enemy Digimon!" The sheer amount of childish glee and excitement in those words made Takato nervous, wondering just how Guilmon already had an idea of what they were getting into. For all intents and purposes, the Digimon was born five minutes ago.

"Y-yeah, something like that buddy. But my name isn't Takatomon, it's just Takato. I'm a human, and we don't all have -mon attached to our names." This brought about another dog-like head tilt, the innocence of the gesture coming from a creature he had just seen blow a living being apart more of a contrast than Takato was comfortable with. "Anyway, that's not important right now, we have to get home before someone thinks you're wild and attacks. I know you're ready, but I could use some sleep before getting into danger like that."

Guilmon followed his Tamer home, the two managing to sneak in without waking Takato's parents. The new tamer fell back onto his bed for the last time that night, his mind finally giving up after being so forcefully taught how different the world was from what it knew.

 **Endnote: So here is the beginning of a new story, one that has yet to see the major divergences that will appear. Also if you think the cursing at the end is unnecessary, well you didn't watch a dinosaur appear out of a flash of light. Seriously, that would've been the reaction of anyone I know that saw that. Anyway, An Earned Mastery will be updated later this week.**


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